Carlos Sainz – Syndication Server

‘Quite clear that it cost us’ – Sainz on Leclerc battles

Carlos Sainz wants to review the fight with Charles Leclerc at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix after feeling both lost positions focusing on each other. The two Ferrari teammates had a small collision in the Sprint on Saturday, with Leclerc …

Carlos Sainz wants to review the fight with Charles Leclerc at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix after feeling both lost positions focusing on each other.

The two Ferrari teammates had a small collision in the Sprint on Saturday, with Leclerc saying he felt Sainz had crossed the line in the way they race each other but expected the issue to be resolved easily with pre-race discussions. However, Turn 1 on the opening lap then saw Leclerc appear to run Sainz wide and both George Russell and Nico Hulkenberg were able to take advantage.

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“A bit of a tough race for us,” Sainz said. “First of all I think we need to review the start because we had a strange line there through Turn 1 and Turn 2, which meant the Mercedes and the Haas passed both Charles and I which cost us probably a bit of race time.

“We had an issue there at the start with both cars going wide and two cars that shouldn’t overtake us overlook us. From then on we had to stop very early for the hard (tire).

“The timing of the safety car wasn’t ideal, because everyone could put on a new tire in front of me and I was left with a very old tire for the last stint and I had to nurse the tire home for a P5. Considering all this, I think P5 was the maximum, so not too bad.”

When pushed on whether he felt Leclerc had driven aggressively at the start in response to the incident in the Sprint, Sainz replied: “I prefer not to comment, but it’s obviously quite clear that it cost us both two positions so in the end it helped neither of us.”

Leclerc himself dismissed the incident as “just the start, it’s always very difficult with the tires, so it is what it is”, and from his point of view, the pair had already discussed Saturday’s incident and cleared the air, even though Sainz had originally disagreed that talks took place.

“Yes, we spoke briefly before qualifying and much longer after qualifying with Fred [Vasseur] and everything is fine,” Leclerc said. “I’m not going into details but, as I said, sometimes I went over the limit and sometimes he went over the limit, but it’s part of the game and now we’ve had a discussion and it’s fine.”

Leclerc expects to clear the air with Sainz after Sprint clash

Charles Leclerc says Carlos Sainz crossed the line in how hard he was fighting during the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix but expects to be able to clear the air with his teammate ahead of Sunday’s race. Sainz sustained damage in contact with …

Sainz sustained damage in contact with Fernando Alonso late in the Sprint, an incident that saw Leclerc able to attack his teammate into the penultimate corner later in the same lap. With Leclerc on the outside of the hairpin, Sainz ran deep and made contact with the other Ferrari, forcing Leclerc wide in a move that he believes was too aggressive between teammates.

“I think so (Sainz crossed the line),” Leclerc said. “But to be honest, I have crossed the line also myself in the past, and when this happens, we normally have a discussion, we clear the air, which we went through that in the past already and it went really well. So I have no worries that it will be the case also this weekend, but today he went a bit over the limit.

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“A contact between us two, being in a different race situation because I had saved quite a bit the tires… I had good pace at the end, it was a bit of a shame we lost that gap to [Sergio] Perez and couldn’t go and take him. But it’s like this, at the end, P4, it could have been P3, one point, you can always do better.”

Sainz says he will apologize if he went too far in his defensive move against Leclerc but pointed to the earlier incident with Alonso as the catalyst for his car being compromised.

“I think I did a good start, I was pushing Max [Verstappen] hard at the beginning because I knew if I was passing him, I had a strong chance of winning the race,” Sainz said. “That probably killed my tires a bit and I was managing for the rest of the race. Until I got Fernando, and then behind Fernando, I did a really good move around the outside of Turn 7.

“Then he decided to be a bit all or nothing into me into Turn 9, which cost us both the race. I picked up damage and a lot of dirt in my tire from that optimistic move. And then yeah, from there on, I was sliding around with the damage on my car and dirt on my tires.

“I was doing everything I could to defend and sliding maybe, had a bit of a moment there with Charles. I apologize if I did something over the limit, but we were all racing really hard today, and I was doing my best to keep it under control out there.”

Leclerc and Sainz went on to qualify in sixth and seventh respectively for the grand prix on Sunday, although Sainz crashed to bring out red flags in Q2 before continuing, and his result is under protest from Aston Martin.

Aston Martin protests qualifying results over Sainz crash

Aston Martin has protested the results of qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix due to the crash suffered by Carlos Sainz. Sainz lost control out of the final corner during Q2 and spun to the inside of the track, hitting the barrier and stopping with …

Aston Martin has protested the results of qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix due to the crash suffered by Carlos Sainz.

Sainz lost control out of the final corner during Q2 and spun to the inside of the track, hitting the barrier and stopping with a broken front wing. The red flag was brought out to interrupt the session, but Sainz was then able to restart his car without external help, and returned to the pits under his own power.

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Ferrari was then able to replace the front wing and check the car for other damage before Sainz rejoined the session and advanced to Q3, while Lance Stroll was knocked out in 11th place for Aston Martin.

The protest from Aston Martin is against a breach of Article 39.6 of the Sporting Regulations, that states: “Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or the Sprint shootout will not be permitted to take any further part in that session.”

P4 ‘deserved’ as Verstappen struggles for tire temperature

Max Verstappen says he was unable to qualify better than fourth for the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix because he struggled for tire temperature in wet conditions. Rain arrived during SQ2 at the Shanghai International Circuit, and left a fully wet …

Max Verstappen says he was unable to qualify better than fourth for the Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix because he struggled for tire temperature in wet conditions.

Rain arrived during SQ2 at the Shanghai International Circuit, and left a fully wet track for the final part of the qualifying session as the top-10 drivers secured their starting positions for Saturday’s Sprint. Verstappen went off track on more than one occasion on the low-grip surface, and says he couldn’t extract the grip from his tires as effectively as he qualified behind Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

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“It was incredibly slippery,” Verstappen said. “I struggled a lot to get the temperature in the tires — it was very difficult to keep the car on track, and it never really switched on for me. It was just like driving on ice.

“That’s why I think it was quite deserved, where we are in qualifying, because it’s not really working for me in the wet, even though I think the dry we look quite good. So of course I’m quite happy with that (part).”

While Verstappen still feels he’s close enough to the front to fight for victory given the performance of the Red Bull in the dry, he says he has one further challenge at the start of the Sprint to negotiate before he can use that pace.

“It’s not ideal to start on the inside here — there’s a lot lower grip, left to right with this like painted stuff on the tarmac. We have to try and have the best start possible. Then of course it’s going to be quite a long stint on one set of tires in the Sprint, but that makes it quite interesting again.”

Verstappen’s feeling was echoed by Carlos Sainz — still within a race victory of Verstappen in the drivers’ championship — as the Spaniard also had tire-related issues in the wet.

“It was a bit of a mixed session,” Sainz said. “We made it well through SQ1 and SQ2 and then in SQ3 the rain arrived and we didn’t manage to switch on the tires. Around here we were struggling a lot with the rear tire, we dropped the tire (temperature) a lot queuing, and then the tire never came up so I couldn’t really push.

“So, two or three seconds off the pole in P5, which just shows that in these conditions you either switch on the tire or you don’t. Anyway, it seems that both cars struggled with tire temperature and warm-up, so if it’s wet tomorrow we will need to find something. If it’s dry, we are more or less in the mix.”

Red Bull, Carlos Sainz disscussing contract for 2025 Formula 1 season

Red Bull confirms that Carlos Sainz is talking to the organization about reuniting with Max Verstappen for the 2025 Formula 1 season.

[autotag]Carlos Sainz[/autotag] is the top driver available for the 2025 Formula 1 season after Lewis Hamilton announced his decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari after 2024. Since the news broke, Sainz has been linked to several Formula 1 teams, such as Mercedes and Audi. However, another team has firmly entered the mix, and it could be his best possible situation.

According to Red Bull’s Helmut Marko in an interview with Austria’s Kleine Zeitung newspaper, Sainz is talking to the organization about reuniting as Max Verstappen’s teammate in 2025. However, Marko also stated that Audi has presented Sainz with a lucrative offer that Red Bull can’t match. Ultimately, it may come down to money or more success in Formula 1.

Sergio Perez currently serves as Verstappen’s teammate, but his future has been in doubt due to his performances. Sainz could swoop in and steal Perez’s seat, but it will come down to what Red Bull wants moving forward. Audi represents a great financial option, but Sainz will have to take less money to join Formula 1’s top organization in 2025.

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Sainz says Ferrari car development has enabled better race strategy

Carlos Sainz says any impression that Ferrari has made a significant improvement this year on strategy is purely down to its stronger car, having made incremental gains in other areas. Ferrari has maximized its race weekends so far this season, …

Carlos Sainz says any impression that Ferrari has made a significant improvement this year on strategy is purely down to its stronger car, having made incremental gains in other areas.

Ferrari has maximized its race weekends so far this season, taking a one-two in Melbourne and finishing third and fourth behind Red Bull in both Bahrain and Japan. In Jeddah, Charles Leclerc was third behind the Red Bulls while Ollie Bearman finished seventh when filling in for the sidelined Sainz, but the Spaniard says the influence of the quality of a car on strategy has been underestimated.

“I think we’ve made progress on strategy over the last three years, progressively, but if you see a jump this year on strategy, it’s purely down to the car,” Sainz said. “Just having a car that allows you to have flexibility on strategy is something that last year we couldn’t have.

“So, we were boxed in to stop at certain laps. We couldn’t extend. We had so much deg that it looked always like people could extend and then come back on us on a harder tire. Last year, we were just zero flexible and we couldn’t do anything without racing. So it looked like we were not getting the strategy right a lot of times.

“But when you have a car that is better on tires, two drivers that can push on the car more often and you have that extra flexibility, your strategy also looks better. And with this, I’m not underestimating the progress we’ve done, it’s just I really think this helps a lot.”

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Sainz similarly attributes his own strong results to the 2024 car, having finished on the podium in all three races he has participated in this year, including the win in Melbourne.

“We just simply improved the car,” he said. “People also might think I’m in a better moment driving and everything, but the reality is just in Formula 1, a car is very important. I’m driving at a high level, but at the same time, having a car that just allows you to go a bit longer, allows you to be a bit closer in dirty air and play around a bit more with strategy, just allows you to shine a bit more.

“That’s why it’s important in the career of a driver to be in a car [like this], because last year in the races we looked like we were always going backwards, always defending. We were terrible with tire management and that was difficult to do good races. This year, suddenly three races, two podiums, a lot of overtaking, a win. It’s a completely different picture.”

Smaller Suzuka gap shows Ferrari gains – Sainz

Carlos Sainz believes his third place in the Japanese Grand Prix provides a clear indication of the progress Ferrari has made over the past six months. At last year’s race at Suzuka – held in October – Sainz finished sixth, 50 seconds behind …

Carlos Sainz believes his third place in the Japanese Grand Prix provides a clear indication of the progress Ferrari has made over the past six months.

At last year’s race at Suzuka – held in October – Sainz finished sixth, 50 seconds behind race-winner Max Verstappen, while teammate Charles Leclerc was a further 44s off in fourth place. This time around, Sainz picked up another podium and was just under 21s away from Verstappen, with Leclerc close behind, and the Spaniard says it proves where Ferrari has been able to strengthen.

“It’s very satisfying,” Sainz said. “We exactly improved the car in the places that we wanted to improve it, and Suzuka proves it. Still, places like Suzuka, we are not as quick as the Red Bull, which is the target, but as soon as we bring a good upgrade to the car that goes in the right direction, hopefully it can get us closer.

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“But yeah, we’ve improved everywhere, and especially in the race pace. It also allows us to have more strategic flexibility, that last year we didn’t have. It allows me to go forward in the races and instead of looking in my mirrors all the time to offset myself with strategy and then overtake people, which is something that last year wasn’t on the cards at any point. So, I’m happy and it makes me enjoy racing more.”

Despite those positive signs that Ferrari is moving in the right direction, and his victory in Melbourne, Sainz says he never had any expectations that Red Bull could be challenged at Suzuka.

“We kind of knew our race pace was better than our qualifying pace,” he said. “Still probably not enough to go for a win because obviously starting P4 and given how good the race pace of the Red Bull is, it’s almost impossible to think about a win, but I was hopeful of achieving a podium that in the end we managed to achieve, even if it was a very tough race, very strategic.

“The track condition changed a lot through the race. We went from a very sunny track that we hadn’t had all weekend to a very cloudy track. The degradation went down a lot and you could push a lot more on the tires halfway through the race.

“This changed the whole situation quite a lot. At one point, I thought the podium wasn’t possible, but then with a new hard [tire], the pace was mega and I could get back onto the podium.”

‘Silly’ if anyone underrates Sainz – Norris

Carlos Sainz has stepped up another level so far this season and anyone who underrates him is “silly”, according to Lando Norris. Ferrari has signed Lewis Hamilton to replace Sainz in 2025; the seven-time world champion to partner Charles Leclerc, …

Carlos Sainz has stepped up another level so far this season and anyone who underrates him is “silly”, according to Lando Norris.

Ferrari has signed Lewis Hamilton to replace Sainz in 2025; the seven-time world champion to partner Charles Leclerc, who has come through the team’s driver academy. That leaves Sainz in search of a new home for next season, but after returning from an appendectomy to secure victory in Melbourne – a result that adds to his podium in Bahrain on his only other start this season – Norris says his former teammate’s quality is shining through.

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“There’s no reason anyone should think he’s underrated,” Norris said. “I think for the people who know him, know what he’s capable of doing, know his effort level, his approach and dedication to wanting to be one of the best, exactly like he’s proved [in Australia], and over the last couple of weeks.

“I’m sure you have plenty of drivers who probably wouldn’t have tried as hard and dedicated so much of their time and effort to trying to recover and get back in the race car. And I think that’s just one example of it. But for the people who know what he’s capable of doing, you would never ever say he’s underrated.

“Of course, results are always a bit of a point to show and people on the outside just easily judge things from what you see on TV. But when you’ve worked with him, when you know what he’s capable of doing, and when things click, they click very well and he has performances like he does [in Melbourne]. And I would say all year, he’s proved to be a step up from maybe what he has been last year. Yeah, you’re silly if you underrate him.”

Sainz’s current teammate Leclerc agrees, and he expects the Spaniard to be in high demand as he weighs up his next move.

“I think everybody knows Carlos’ worth in the paddock,” Leclerc said. “He’s one of the highest-rated drivers in the paddock. And he’s been extremely strong every time he was in a Formula 1 car. And he has showed it multiple times. So I don’t think he’s underrated for that.

“I think everybody knows Carlos’ worth. And that’s why I’ve said many times that I’m not too worried about his future, because I’m sure that many, many team principals are… He doesn’t say it, but for sure they are speaking with him! And I’m sure he will have many opportunities and he’ll just have to make the best choice for his career.”

Horner won’t rule out Red Bull approach for Sainz

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Carlos Sainz cannot be ruled out as an option for 2025 if it opts to replace Sergio Perez next year. Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix just 16 days after having his appendix removed and missing the …

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Carlos Sainz cannot be ruled out as an option for 2025 if it opts to replace Sergio Perez next year.

Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix just 16 days after having his appendix removed and missing the previous race in Saudi Arabia, while Perez only finished fifth after a grid penalty and then getting visor tear-offs stuck to his floor. The result ended a run of nine straight Max Verstappen victories, and while Yuki Tsunoda again impressed for the junior RB team with seventh place, Horner says Sainz is showing himself to be a strong option on the driver market.

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“I think it’s still very early in the year to even be thinking about next year,” Horner said. “Yuki’s a very quick driver we know that but I think we want to feel the best pairing that we can in Red Bull Racing and sometimes you’ve got to look outside the pool as well. You’ve had a very fast unemployed driver win [in Melbourne]. The market is reasonably fluid with certain drivers.

“Based on a performance like that you couldn’t rule any possibility out, so I think you just want to take the time and obviously Checo was compromised [on Sunday]. He’s had a great start to the season too so we’re not in any desperate rush.”

Sainz is in need of a new team after Ferrari opted to sign Lewis Hamilton to partner Charles Leclerc from 2025 onwards, but his latest success matches Leclerc with three victories each since becoming team-mates in 2021.

Sunday’s victory also ensures Sainz is the only driver to stop Red Bull from winning races since the start of the 2023 season, following his victory in Singapore last year that prevented a clean sweep of victories for the team. Horner says the strength from the Spaniard is impressive but he’s expecting Red Bull to bounce back from the disappointment of Verstappen’s retirement at the next round in Japan.

“Carlos is the only driver that’s beaten Red Bull, so he appears to be our nemesis! But Suzuka is a great track. It’s a track that we’ve always performed well at, it’s Honda’s home circuit and the drivers enjoy it and love racing there so we’re looking forward to going back.”

Melbourne win extra special for Sainz after ‘roller coaster’ start to 2024

Carlos Sainz says his future departure from Ferrari and recent appendicitis both add to the special feeling he got from his victory in the Australian Grand Prix. Just 16 days after undergoing surgery to have his appendix removed in Saudi Arabia, …

Carlos Sainz says his future departure from Ferrari and recent appendicitis both add to the special feeling he got from his victory in the Australian Grand Prix.

Just 16 days after undergoing surgery to have his appendix removed in Saudi Arabia, Sainz started on the front row in Melbourne and took a remarkable win as he passed Max Verstappen on lap 2 before the championship leader retired. Sainz was comfortable in the lead after that point, and says the win shows how quickly situations can changed as he won the third race after it was announced he’ll be replaced by Lewis Hamilton in 2025.

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“I think it’s not only the last two weeks, you know, it’s the whole start of the year in general, how the year started with the news of the non-renewal,” Sainz said. “Then you get yourself fit, you get yourself ready for the start of the season, pushing flat out. And then you get to Bahrain, you do a good podium, you say, ‘OK, now the season is starting well and I can keep the momentum going.’

“And suddenly, boom, missing a race in Jeddah and the operation. Long, long days in bed, not knowing if I was going to be back in time. Obviously a lot of unknowns. Am I going to be back fit? Am I going to be back feeling still good with the car? And then suddenly you come back and win.

“So yes, what I said on the radio, you know, life is a roller coaster sometimes, but it can be really nice and good to you sometimes. And just letting it sink in and enjoying the moment.”

Sainz took the lead after Verstappen ran wide at Turn 3 as a brake issue worsened, but the Spaniard believes he also had the car to put pressure on Red Bull regardless of Verstappen’s issues.

“I got a decent start from the dirty side of the grid, but obviously couldn’t put Max under pressure into Turn 1, but from there on it was a kind of a very strategic first lap and a half where you are wanting to protect the tire from opening up the graining,” he said. “But at the same time, I knew this weekend and this race, I could have the pace to challenge Max. And I thought to myself, with how powerful the DRS is around here, if I get myself within the DRS range after lap 1, we can put him a bit under pressure.

“I think he did a mistake into Turn 3 that allowed me to stay within the DRS and I could feel myself being pretty quick. I don’t know when his brakes started to go, but in dirty air, obviously, it’s not the same than in clean air with a big gap.

“I saw him… obviously pushing on lap 1 and I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to push with him too and challenge in the car.’ But obviously it could have been the brakes, as he said. So, I don’t know, honestly, but it felt good to pass him, with brake issues or not, because it is tough to pass Max and the Red Bull.

“It’s what we’ve said from the beginning — if you are there and you can put Red Bull under pressure, you can sometimes get it done. But you need to be there — and we need to be there more often if we want to win.”